Sunday, August 2nd

The warmest winter on record is officially over, and a potentially long, dry growing season has begun. How is the weird weather affecting California vineyards? With the help of regional association directors, Wines & Vines took a virtual zigzag down the state this week, asking grapegrowers about bud break, frost threat and potential mitigation, and their outlook for the year ahead. Look for dispatches from other California locations later this week.

Sonoma State University's Wine Business Institute is trying to connect interest with acumen through its Wine Entrepreneurship certificate program, an eight-week series of seminars offered for the first time in 2012 that is in session again this year

Decades of irrigation have leached salts and toxic minerals from the soil that have nowhere to go, threatening crops and wildlife. Aquifers are being drained at an alarming pace. More than 95 percent of the area's native habitat has been destroyed by cultivation or urban expansion, leaving more endangered bird, mammal and other species in the southern San Joaquin than anywhere in the continental U.S.

California's drought has sparked a new push by federal lawmakers to create or expand a handful of reservoirs around the state, ramping up a political battle that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once referred to as a "holy war in some ways."

Broc Cellars fits hardly anybody's idea of a California winery. You won't see any cellars, for one thing, or anything remotely pastoral, like a vineyard. The cellars are a warehouse, on a corner in an industrial district here in Berkeley. Across one street is a cement plant. Across another is a motorcycle-repair shop. The melody of passing freight trains plays every once in a while

The damage to fruit-producing buds is already estimated at $12 million statewide. Should spring reveal dead vines, winemakers could face four years of diminished crops until new plants gets up to full production. That initial $12 million loss could multiply many times.

Hearty Burgundy came at propitious time.America was moving from city to suburb, and backyard grilling had exploded after 1952, when some genius at the Weber Metal Works cut a marine buoy in half to create what might have been the first mass-production outdoor charcoal cooker. Hearty Burgundy was a natural pairing for the great American cheeseburger

Anyone who has seen Tegan Passalacqua in recent years probably encountered him driving one of a trusty string of Outbacks, hopscotching vineyards throughout the state. Currently, he's at 400,000 miles and counting

"We wanted to write the truth [on the bottles]," Rinaldi says, shrugging, "but we cannot write the truth."
To Rinaldi fans, these 2010s may well be seductively delicious. But to Rinaldi, they are a compromise. Of the future he says, "Maybe next year I will make my life easier and blend it all together into one Barolo. I don't know. It's a political decision."

In response to numerous requests for curriculum that focuses on social media and mobile marketing Sonoma State's Wine Business Institute has developed two new wine industry seminars to be taught by Andrew Healy, founder of 3 Rock Marketing. Both seminars will be held at the Napa Valley Vintners in St. Helena on March 27 and 28.

In honor of World Water Day, Marc Mondavi and his wine brand, The Divining Rod, announced a new campaign and donation to support charity: water, a nonprofit organization that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

The Schweiger Family has been announced as the 2014 Cotes du Côeur Tete du Cuvée recipient. The family is being honored after years of supporting the well-known wine auction held annually at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas benefitting the National Heart Association.

Mendocino Wine Company, owned by the Thornhill family and based in Mendocino, California, has announced the release of Moniker, a new line of premium wines that includes Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Miravante Brands LLC and Kretek International today unveiled Nuvino™(www.nuvino.com), a new line of premium single-serve wine in a pouch from vineyards around the world. Designed for wine lovers, novices and everyone in between, Nuvino is designed to meet a growing consumer demand.

There are not many business plans that begin with Dante. Yet Dante is at the root of the reemergence of the wines from the Piandoccoli estate, in the Tuscan hills west of Florence. It is a case of history bearing direct influence on the present, and perhaps the future as well: the historical grapes of Tuscany produce wines that are lower in alcohol, which is an increasingly popular trend among curious wine consumers.

Haight-Brown Vineyard, a 9.1-acre winery in Litchfield on the Connecticut Wine Trail, is on the market for $1.475 million. Amy Senew, the owner who put the vineyard at 29 Chestnut Hill Road up for sale, bought the property, consisting of two lots of equal size, with her former husband, Courtney Brown, in 2007. It was established by Sherman Haight, a Litchfield resident, as Haight Vineyard in 1975.

Treasury Wine Estates wants to double the size of it travel retail business within five years as it steps its distribution with exclusive and premium wines to airports, cruise ships, ferries and other key travel wine sectors.

Those who want liquor privatization in Pennsylvania have offered a compromise to be negotiated in the state legislature; partial privatization. The compromise will basically allow for the privatization of beer and wine, while only the state run stores could sell the harder liquor, like vodka, whiskey and gin.

It's going to soon be pay to play for brands - Facebook is apparently about to blackmail brands even more so than they have to date, ratcheting down organic exposure of brand page content to 1-2% at best